Heathrow legal connection time change

Old Jan 30th, 2008, 08:38 AM
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Heathrow legal connection time change

Several months ago be booked our June trip to Italy using AA FF miles for Business class. Our return is from FCO to LHR and then back to LAX, using BA on the first leg. Last night we had a message from AA to call them about a problem with our itinerary.

It seems that LHR has changed the legal connection time there from 90 minutes to 2 hours, so our connection of 1:40 is not going to work, and they will not allow us to be ticketed. AA says that there is an earlier morning flight, but it is booked, so that our only recourse is to leave the night before, and thus spend our last night of vacation at a hotel near LHR, awaiting an afternoon flight the next day. We said we would talk and get back to them.

This was not a happy conversation, but then it occured to me that perhaps only the Business class was booked on that earlier flight, so in getting back to AA, that was confirmed and so we now have seats on that earlier BA flight from FCO in economy, and instead of losing our last night in Italy we will get to spend some extra time at LHR. We have requested an upgrade since we think more Bus seats will open up later and were told that since it is BA it will not be automatic, we can keep checking with AA on a regular basis between now and June.

Guess the only problem is that since we booked the original connection (11:00 flight to LHR) to allow for a last night in our B&B outside Orvieto, we will now be getting up before dawn to get to FCO for the earlier 8:00 flight. It's a Sunday, we should be ok and it certainly beats the first option of flying to LHR the night before.

Guess I'm glad they called and we didn't find this out closer to the date in some other way.

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Old Jan 30th, 2008, 08:56 AM
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Yep, probably the best outcome given the options.

Do indeed keep checking back with AA about being seated up front in the earlier flight. I just checked on all the Sunday 8:15 AM BA FCO-LHR departures during the month of June, and on every flight there are 9 or more business class seats still for sale as of today. This means that BA hasn't released seats into award inventory despite there being plenty of open chairs. They do this because often last-minute walk-ups buy these seats and they don't want to lose that potential revenue. However, it's entirely possible that they will release the seats before your travel date, so your constant bugging of AA will be your best strategy to ensure you get them when and if they open. Even daily phone contact isn't a bad idea - they won't mind.
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Old Jan 30th, 2008, 08:58 AM
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I guess it has something to do with the opening of the new terminal 5. BA will consolidate all of it's ops to term 5 and AA with all the other OneWorld partners will be staying in terminal 3. The connection time went up because of the longer distances between the 2 terminals.
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Old Jan 30th, 2008, 09:18 AM
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I would not waste too much time trying to grab a J seat on an intra-European BA flight. Not much difference between J and Y seats on these flights.

BA operates A320s on this route with 3-3 seating config. The only difference between J and Y seating is that the middle seat is unoccupied in J. You have little better food and lounge access in FCO but with the early morning flight, lounge access is pretty much a non-issue.

I would call now and then but personally I would not waste too much time just so I sit in Y seat but in the front of the plane. It is ~2.5 hour flight.
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Old Jan 30th, 2008, 09:27 AM
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Thanks for the advice. We have taken that flight between LHR and FCO before, which is what made me think to ask for coach seats. I agree, 2 and 1/2 hours in coach versus having to go the day before is the better choice. I was also thinking the new terminal is the reason for this change. Now if they just don't lose the luggage . . .
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Old Jan 30th, 2008, 09:35 AM
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Well, since you're burning the miles for business class seats, I don't know that I'd blow it off all that quickly. It's a really long day, so making it as comfortable as possible would be a priority of mine.

AAFF, unless things have changed recently, BA's A320s have 2-3 seating in business class, with the A/C seats (left side) separated by a little gap, vs. 3 seats on the DEF side.

Now that you have more like 5 hours at LHR, I would also consider asking if the bags can be sent just to LHR, then take them to AA yourselves, rather than risk having BA's people lose them someplace. It would take longer, but might make for better peace of mind.
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Old Jan 30th, 2008, 09:54 AM
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You are correct but the general point I was trying to make is that the J seat is not anything special. It's your basic Y seat.

YMMV, but I wouldn't be calling daily to snatch one of these seats. Occasional call - yes.

Besides, I don't think BA's intra-European J inventory works the same way as AA's F domestic inventory. AA has a certain number of F seats on their work horses whereas BA just pulls the curtain as needed. AA can predict on how many of the assigned F seats they can sell and release award, upgrade seats to cover what's left. With BA it could be as few as 2 rows or they will extend it to almost 1/2 of the plane if the flight is selling well. Just because all BA flights are showing 9 revenue seats available it doesn't necessarily mean they will release any unsold seats to award inv. They will simply pull the curtain...

If we're only talking about intra-European flights I actually believe (and I may be wrong) that BA only releases few seats when they load up the flight, but once they're gone, they're pretty much gone. The only time they may release 1 or 2 more is when there is only 1 person in the "last row" of the J cabin. They won't push back the curtain just so they can release more seats. JMHO.
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Old Jan 30th, 2008, 11:00 AM
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Okay, not daily maybe, but frequently.

I've had AA (granted, EXP desk) talk to BA and get Club Europe seats assigned to the biz award bucket, but I can't pretend to understand the inner workings of BA's YM shop (black cauldrons and eyes of newt I suspect.) Actually, one of the reasons I'd shoot for business seats if possible would be to have things move a little more quickly at FCO at dawn's early light for the OP. Not sure if there's a business security line, but the queue for BA check-in definitely might be shorter. Getting to FCO early in the morning is enough of a pain to try to make it as easy as possible.
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Old Feb 8th, 2008, 08:15 AM
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Happy update: yesterday we got a phone call and e-mail from AA saying that there had been a change to our itinerary. Looking at the e-mail we realized that they had gone and reinstated us to Business on the early morning flight to LHR (the one that had to be changed). AND we had yet to call and ask the status. AA is continuing to win points with us.
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